Committee Of Secretaries (COS) Considers Right to Privacy

Right to privacy is a very important law that is missing from the list of Indian laws. For decades the right to privacy has been ignored by Indian government. However, a stage has reached where many crucial projects of Indian government have become “unconstitutional” as these are violating the crucial right to privacy as declared by the Supreme Court of India.

Now Indian government is considering enacting a privacy law for India. A Right to Privacy Bill 2011 has been proposed by Indian government in this regard. However, it has not been made public by Indian government till now and this raised a question upon the commitment of Indian government in this regard.

Meanwhile media reports have claimed that the proposed privacy law may cover all individuals in India irrespective of whether they are citizens of the country or not. This means foreigners who work in India and tourists from abroad will enjoy the same privacy rights as Indian citizens. This is a good provision if finally incorporated in the proposed privacy law.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the committee of secretaries (COS) called by the cabinet secretariat a few weeks ago. The COS members said just as every person living in India had a right to life and liberty, the right to privacy should cover every individual in India.

The COS also decided to exempt journalistic publications. It also suggested a few exemptions related to protection of sensitive personal data. It proposed that insurance companies be allowed to access the health data of individuals and employers the banking and financial data of their employees. It also agreed on strong provisions to check unsolicited commercial communication. This will curb spam emails that fraudsters use to get financial information from individuals.

The COS also wanted a list of agencies that could intercept phone calls. The circumstances under which a communication can be intercepted and the authorities that can order such interception should also be detailed, according to the COS.

However, the Prime Minister’s Office has made it clear that surveillance by intelligence agencies for national security should not be hampered. The members pointed out that intelligence gathering for security purposes would be exempted. However, intelligence work should not be an excuse for non accountability and non transparency.

The COS suggested that while there should be a provision on CCTV coverage and other methods of surveillance, the right to privacy should not apply to images captured in a public place as the individual concerned is well aware that he is at such a place. The members also wanted more clarity on sharing of information among government departments.

The COS also decided to set up a council to advise the government on data privacy issues. It was also agreed that the cyber tribunal set up under the Information Technology Act 2000 should be designated as the appellate tribunal for the purpose of this Bill. A data protection authority with powers to punish offenders was also proposed.

Some of these proposals are really good whereas others require more detailed analysis and discussion. Further, there are many more issues that have not yet been covered by the proposed Bill and they also need to be incorporated in the same.

Legal Empowerment Of Indian ICT

Legal empowerment of Indian information and communication technology (ICT) regime is still missing. We have no legal enablement of ICT systems in India in true sense.

Legal enablement of ICT presupposes adoption of a legal framework that can take care of various dealings in the cyberspace.

Cyberspace is very vast and borders less. It is very difficult to regulated cyberspace but national and international laws are required to bring some sort of discipline in the otherwise chaosed cyber world.

Cyber law of India is weak and experts have been suggesting it should be repealed. We have no data protection and privacy laws in India. Even cyber security and cyber forensics laws are missing in India.

On the policy front as well India is lagging far behind. We do not have policies regarding critical ICT infrastructure protection, cyber warfare, cyber security, etc.

India has to do a lot in order to legally empower the ICT usage in India. The sooner it is done the better it would be for India in general and Indian citizens in particular.

Data Protection Law In India Is Urgently Required

Indian government’s hunger for e-surveillance as well as the pressure from the industrial bodies for weak and ineffective cyber laws is costing Indians their privacy and data protection law. The truth is that privacy rights in India are at sale.

The e-surveillance projects include unique identification project of India (UID project) or Aadhar project of India. It is managed by Nandan Nilekani as the chairman of unique identification authority of India (UIDAI). Other projects include national intelligence grid (Natgrid), CCTNS, etc.

The ineffective and cyber criminal’s friendly laws include information technology act 2000. IT Act 2000 is the sole cyber law of India that has been made an instrumentality of e-surveillance by Indian government. Further, under pressure from industrial bodies, almost all the cyber crimes have been made bailable.

However, the gravest of all concerns is the high level of e-surveillance in India with no corresponding privacy laws, data protection laws and procedural safeguards. Even the IT Act 2000 is silent on the procedural safeguards against illegal and unconstitutional e-surveillance, internet censorship, etc.

In these circumstances, it is of paramount importance that suitable privacy laws and data protection laws must be enacted by Indian parliament as soon as possible.

Human Rights In Cyberspace Are Outlawed In India Says Praveen Dalal

In this guest column, Praveen Dalal, Managing Partner of Perry4Law and the creator of HRPIC initiative, is analysing the position of e-surveillance and its affect upon civil liberties of Indians, He maintains that in India Human Rights in Cyberspace are clearly outlawed and only outlaws would have these Human Rights.

Philip R. "Phil" Zimmermann Jr. (born February 12, 1954) is one of the greatest civil liberty protectors in the cyberspace. Zimmermann is the creator of Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), the most widely used email encryption software in the world. He is also known for his work in VoIP encryption protocols, notably ZRTP and Zfone.

In his rationale for creating PGP he tells that using PGP is good for preserving democracy. He believes that if privacy is outlawed, only outlaws will have privacy. This is so true not only in the context of America but also India.

India is passing through the worst era of police state and e-surveillance society. Even worst is the reliance upon American models that have failed in America itself. But Home Minister P.Chidambaram is not discouraged by these failures and he would stop only on the failure of these models in India.

Even the Department of Information Technology (DIT) and Department of Telecommunications (DOT) have joined this blind and ignorant race and are trying to ban telecommunication services like Blackberry and Skype and Internet services like Gmail.

These departments are troubled by the strong and secure encryption technology and other similar technologies that prevent unlawful and illegal e-surveillance by the government and its agencies. Criminals and terrorists are already using these, and much better options, and these ignorant actions would only trouble and violate the civil liberties of law abiding citizens alone.

All the limits in this regard were crossed when the Information Technology Amendment Act 2008 (IT Act 2008) was made an enforceable law in India. The IT Act 2008 provides unregulated, unconstitutional and illegal e-surveillance, Internet censorship and website blocking powers in the hands of Indian government and its agencies. There is no mechanism at all that can prevent the abuses of these powers and there is no accountability as well.

A time has come in India when Human Rights in Cyberspace are clearly outlawed and only outlaws (as per the norms and standards of Indian government) would have these Human Rights. This is the main reason why I dedicated a resource titled Human Rights Protection in Cyberspace (HRPIC) to those law abiding citizens who cherish and wish to protect their civil liberties in cyberspace.

With further illegal and unconstitutional projects like CCTNS, NATGRID, UID Project/Aadhar Project, etc things are only going to be worst in India. The only option remains is to use self defence against the persons, institutions and agencies that are engaging in illegal and unconstitutional e-surveillance and civil liberty violations.